Patriot Research cell
Violent mob lynched two suspects shortly after the twin attacks on two churches in Lahore on Sunday. The mob after lynching both the suspects also torched their bodies as police watched helplessly. It was discovered later that one of those lynched was a glass-cutter from Kasur.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan while speaking in the National Assembly on Tuesday declared the lynching of two suspects by the mob in Youhanabad as the ‘worst form of terrorism’. The lynching incident is however not the first in Pakistan.
The first high-profile case of lynching was that of Mughees Butt and Muneeb Butt in Sialkot in August, 2010. The brothers were lynched, hung, and mutilated in the presence of a large crowd. The two brothers were accused of robbery and murder. However a judicial inquiry found that the boys had been innocent of the charges.
In July 2012 a mentally unstable homeless man was beaten to death before his body was set on fire for allegedly burning pages of the Quran in Bahawalpur. A month later in August 2012, an angry mob attacked a house in Tando Adam as they suspected that illicit activities were going on there, the mob captured three people from the house, one of them was beaten to death while two others were seriously injured. In the same year in December violent mob in the city of Dadu beat to death a man for allegedly desecrating the Holy Quran. After killing the man the mob also set the body of the deceased on fire.
In May 2013 in the town of Golra, near the Federal capital Islamabad an enraged crowd lynched a man to death with iron rods after breaking into his home, the man was allegedly caught in an objectionable condition.
In July 2014, a mob beat to death a suspected robber in Orangi Town, Karachi. In November the same year a Christian couple was lynched and later their bodies were set on fire in a brick kiln where they worked. The incident happened in the small town of Kot Radha Kishan, some sixty kilometers from Lahore. The couple was accused of desecrating the Holy Quran.
On January 31, 2015 two suspected robbers were lynched by a mob in the Korangi neighborhood of Karachi. The violent crowd also tried setting the bodies of the dead on fire. On February 02, 2015 three robbers were thrashed to death in Faisalabad, locals had nabbed the robbers after a chase. A week later on February 09, 2015 two robbers were beaten to death in the Landhi neighborhood of Karachi.
Since August 2010, 17 people have been lynched across Pakistan. The lynching incidents are on the rise with a shocking nine people lynched by violent mobs since the start of this year.